For more than a decade, Bloomberg has allowed readers to devour journalism on its consumer-facing website at no charge, in the hopes of burnishing its brand, generating advertising dollars and complementing its core terminal business.

Now that strategy is changing.

The global financial-news company announced Wednesday the start of a metered paywall that charges users for access to Bloomberg.com and the company’s consumer news apps.

The paywall has two tiers. For $34.99 a month, users will get access to Bloomberg.com, the company’s mobile and tablet apps and a live stream of Bloomberg TV, as well as podcasts and subscriber-only daily newsletters.

The other option, at $39.99 a month, includes the first-tier products along with a print and digital subscription to Bloomberg Businessweek and access to some BloombergLIVE events. Readers can still purchase a stand-alone subscription to the magazine.

Users will be able to read 10 articles a month and stream 30 minutes of Bloomberg TV a day free before the paywall kicks in, an enticement to subscribe for readers sampling the company’s journalism.

The new look for the Bloomberg homepage.
Photo:
BLOOMBERG MEDIA

Bloomberg News has long had to calibrate getting wide recognition and more direct revenue for its news efforts while not cannibalizing Bloomberg LP’s true cash cow, its multi-billion dollar terminal business that offers news in addition to financial data, messaging and trading tools.

Other major national news brands have paywalls in place. New York Times charges readers $15.99 a month for digital access after a yearlong introductory period. The Wall Street Journal costs $36.99 for digital access each month after an introductory period, and the Financial Times charges a $36 monthly fee for basic digital access, both slightly higher than Bloomberg’s least expensive package.

In a world where consumers are flocking to subscription services such as Netflix and Spotify, executives at Bloomberg believe users are willing to pay for news and information that helps them get ahead, said
John Micklethwait,
the editor in chief of Bloomberg News.

“We know there is a big market out there of clever people who have more money than time, and they live in a knowledge economy where ideas, news and information are incredibly important,” Mr. Micklethwait said.

Bloomberg joins a raft of media companies erecting paywalls to diversify their revenue and establish a more direct relationship with readers as
Alphabet Inc.
’s Google and
Facebook Inc.
continue to suck up the lion’s share of digital ad spending and insert themselves between publishers and their audiences.

Bloomberg Media’s chief executive,
Justin Smith,
says the decision to start a paywall comes as readership and digital advertising are growing quickly. From 2014 through 2017, the division’s digital-ad revenue grew more than 54%, with a 26% gain in 2017 alone, Mr. Smith said.

Executives at Bloomberg Media are aware that a paywall could affect readership. The institution of a Businessweek paywall in mid-2017 has driven a 45% increase in new subscriptions for the magazine through the Bloomberg site, according to the company, which declined to provide specific subscriber numbers. Meanwhile, the number of unique visitors to Businessweek’s site has grown more than 20%, the company said.

Bloomberg is also rolling out an overhaul of its website and consumer apps. The redesign pares back some of the showier and brightly colored elements of the current properties, opting for a more classic black-and-white display.

Bloomberg’s media business finished 2017 with about $304 million in revenue, down from its peak of about $335 million in 2012, according to estimates from Burton-Taylor International Consulting. Overall, the firm estimates that closely held Bloomberg generated $9.83 billion in revenue last year, largely driven by its terminal business.

Mr. Smith said Bloomberg Media is expecting record revenue in 2018 and declined to comment on the division’s profitability.

In recent years, the company has put more emphasis on trying to generate revenue from its media properties.

Terminal sales helped the company notch more than 36 years of consecutive annual revenue growth and build a global newsroom of 2,700 journalists and analysts. But following the financial crisis, growth began to slow for the terminals, which cost more than $20,000 a year and are a staple on the desks of financial-services employees around the world.

In 2006, Bloomberg’s terminal business grew nearly 12%, according to Burton-Taylor, but annual growth hasn’t exceeded 2% since 2011.

“I think they’re going to be positive again this year, and it wouldn’t surprise me for them to be consistently positive in the future,” said Douglas Taylor, managing director of Burton-Taylor. “But you’re not going to see double-digital growth in their terminal numbers.”